Hospital Tank water

[Tokyoyankee]

Hi,

My DT suffered a major lose as I improperly quarantined new fish. Basically marine velvet got in and I lost a bunch of fish. I've set up a 50 liter hospital tank with 2 clowns, a chormis, a coral beauty, and a small regal angel. Everyone is eating! Anyways, I've decided to use freshly mixed saltwater to establish my hospital tank along with the proper doses of cupramine. Is this the correct course of action? I'm worried that this new water is not cycled but at the same time, I don't want to reintroduce the parasites from the display. I will leave the DT fallow for 2 months. In addition, how often should I do a WC on my hospital tank? Thanks in advance!

 

[HumbleFish]

I always use freshly mixed s/w when I QT. There isn't enough nitrifying bacteria in DT water to matter - it's all in the rocks & sand. In your case, I would take care not to add anything to your QT from the DT since it is infected with Velvet.

50 liters is roughly 13 gallons, and that is a very heavy bioload for the fish you listed. I'm thinking you are looking at daily WCs to keep ammonia under control.

 

[MrTuskfish]

I agree^^^^

There is no such thing as "cycled water". You are probably going to have an ammonia problem with ammonia, as it seems there was no way to cycle the HT. I would use a Aqua Clear HOB filter and jump start the cycle with Bio-Spira, one of a zillion bacteria products that actually works. You can't use Prime, or other ammonia neutralizers with copper and most ammonia test kits don't work when Cu is in the water. The little stick on ammonia alerts do work. Dosing copper in a tank with rock & substrate is very difficult, Cu gets absorbed (and probably released by those materials). Plan on lots of WCs and always add Cu to the new water before it goes in the tank.

 

[Tokyoyankee]

Thanks for clearing that up. A lot of thread say to use DT water but I think that's in the of a quarantine and DT is disease free. I have a sponge filter on it and plan to do a 20% every three or two days

 

[MrTuskfish]

Thanks for clearing that up. A lot of thread say to use DT water but I think that's in the of a quarantine and DT is disease free. I have a sponge filter on it and plan to do a 20% every three or two days

True, but if your main tank is parasite free, DT water is ideal for a QT. The Dt gets a WC at the same time. If your tank isn't parasite-free, that's a big deal.

 

[ca1ore]

True, but if your main tank is parasite free, DT water is ideal for a QT. The Dt gets a WC at the same time. If your tank isn't parasite-free, that's a big deal.

Exactly!